Friends car is a 90 Civic LX with 140k miles. CAR IS NOT LOWERED. 100% STOCK CAR

<u>September:</u> Replaced passenger side axle with used junkyard axle
<u>February:</u> Experiencing huge clunking sound. Replaced driver side axle with Autozone axle bc boot was torn and CV joint was shot. Did not fix clunking.
<u>March:</u> Determined huge clunking noise was from cracked tranny housing behind differential and most likely caused by internal tranny damage. Replaced tranny with a used 91 Civic LX tranny.

<u>on the trip home</u>: Driver side axle seperated at the CV joint. We think we damaged the CV joint when pulling on it too hard to remove it. Replaced under warranty.
<u>a week later:</u> Driver side axle started clicking. Boot was NOT torn. Replaced under warranty.
<u>next day:</u> Passenger side axle breaks suddenly out of nowhere during lunch.

So that's both axles in a week. maybe 1,000 miles on the new tranny. I could see how the passenger side could go bc it was used but the driver side was freaking a week old!

Someone mentioned bad motor mounts. They are in good shape. When the tranny was replaced we replaced the front tranny mount which was so-so. All motor mounts are good now, not torn. The engine does not move at all when rocked by hand.

Any ideas why we're breaking axles so fast?



Modified by Muckman at 3:01 PM 3/14/2005

 

buy your parts from honda instead of autozone

 

Thanks for the tremendous help.

The last axle to go WAS OEM Honda. Boot was NOT torn.

 

how's the caster on this car?

 

The caster is fine as far as I know. I replaced the passenger (the side that just broke today) tie rod end a few weeks ago and I know there is a bit of toe out there...but that wouldn't affect caster would it?

 

Caster looks alright. The passenger side has some slight toe we thing but not even enough to wear the tire. Im assuming the alignment would have to be drastically off to break axles. Just look at cars lowered 2 and 3" with massive alignment changes and no adverse affect on axles.

 

Tonight we got another axle from Advance Auto (same brand as Autozone). Replaced the bad axle, got it all back together. Drove 300 feet and it broke again! Are these remanufactured axles that shity? WTF?

 

bump for ideas.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Muckman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Tonight we got another axle from Advance Auto (same brand as Autozone). Replaced the bad axle, got it all back together. Drove 300 feet and it broke again! Are these remanufactured axles that shity? WTF? </TD></TR></TABLE>

No, there is something seriously wrong going on.

How are you putting the axles in?

There is something very misaligned for them to seperate that quickly.

 

yeah, ive been running autozone axles for a few years now. ive changed them twice for the hell of it when i did my clutch. might as well put a fresh one while everything was off. like someone said eariler, check the motor mounts for loose or borken ones. does the engine shake easily ? check the ones around the tranny, the upper and lower one. since you didint drop your car, im assuming ur alignment is still good, unless you hit a big dip or some **** int he road throwing it off. just a thought, any CEL codes ?

 

I would say that they are somehow getting loose on you. Just make sure the circlips are in good condition and that they are sticking

 

hasback, the shaft isn't coming out of the transmission, the CV joint inside the boot is seperating.

 

dang that sucks man. but to what it sounds like theres a problem on the hub side, not the tranny. try spinng it and see if theres a drag, it should spin freely

 

Hey dude,

Was the motor position touched? I remember gator Glenn (from gator racing axles) telling me if the motor is tilted 2 or 3 degrees it can cause the geometry of the axles to be off and u can break axles like its nothing - just a thought.

How are the motor mounts? Can a weak motor mount allow enough play to snap an axle .. something to consider.

- Fred

 

We recently replaced the transmission, which obviously required taking the tranny mounts off. I can't imagine we moved the engine enough that they would just break like that? The axles are already at an angle in the car, and like muckman said, if the car were lowered they would be at an even more extreme angle.

 

The motor mounts are solid. However its possible the engine could be tilted slightly but I cant see how it could affect anything. These axles have two CV joints. The whole point is to adjust with the suspension.

The car could use an alignment bc the passenger side tie bar end link was replaced a mouth ago but it would seem that the alignment would have to be horribly screwed up to break axles like this.

I think we may just be installing them wrong or the reman axles aren't the greatest. I dont see how it could be anything else. Ive installed axles on many other honda before without problems.

 

Upon closer inspection the axle that broke was NOT the axle we just replaced but the driver side. So we dont have any common denominators anymore. Unless a transmission can actually break a CV joint which I highly doubt.

 

Any ideas anyone? I need to get this working...I'm doing axles more often that oil changes!

 

hey bro we can figure this shitz out. it can be a pain in the *** to get responses but no actual solutions. worse then that are the people that don't fully read and/or understand your dilemas. one thing, if any of my possible solutions help, promise to send me a dollar or two through paypal as i would like to get an online nudy membership. anyways.....my long run on solutions are to give you enlightment and more common sense. not saying you are not smart, but if you can replace axles then you have decent mechanical ability. if you open your mind, you can do anything. you can do IT! oh i'm also blazed, so that might contribute to my long solutions and preface and prefix. but.....if your at this point frustated up the *** like i bet you are, you will read word for word, and then it will be the greatest thing since coochie.....or import p4manz....no i say just coochie. also before you proceed, think like the mind of a poker player. think and play the odds.

1. right off the bat, it is evident that after breaking more than one new axle, you have a problem, not in the new axle but somewhere else. why? all parts regardless of oem, remanufactured, or aftermarket oem "like" pos have to meet quality standards that satisfy government regulations if they are to be street legal. therefore, for you to even break two new axles simultaneously is an extremely high odd as even autozone parts have something like less than 1% defect. how would these companies stay in business if people are returning axles every 300 feet. most smart companies would have a recall before there are too many defective parts sold.

2. it is also evident (further increases your odds) that you did in fact do a recent replacement of the clutch and or transmission. if i read correctly, you encountered axle problems only after tranny work. this further helps your odds. so given that the engine mounts were all reinstalled correctly, this leads me to believe that there are two possible culprits.

a. your alignment is off. but if it is in fact your alignment, then it is way the **** off. ever heard of the saying if you do any suspension work, get an alignment. also, it can be a combination of things. you could also have a bent crossmember or other suspension related components. easy way to figure this out is to measure the distance between the tire and the fender at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock. measure both front tires at all four points. you have to be sure that everything is straight. things may look straight, but until you measure, you don't know for sure. after you measure these, measure the distance between the left and right wheel but measure in front and rear of the front two wheels. if the front and rear measurements are not similar, then you have toe in or toe out problems.

b. you could have simply bought the wrong axle for the car. sometimes, especially stupid, dumb, mother *******, ignorant, mostly "i know everything about cars but i'm 50 years old and i work at a autozone for $10 an hour and i know everything until you jap racers come in with your stupid questions (when they are really quite simple questions if you really new cars like you dumbfuck parts ******* think you do)". no offense to the few parts guys that know their **** and are a great asset to our community(mostly the guys that were hired due to eoe government regulations). anyways, the weeds wearing off, i just killed a diabetic horse and a big black dude in speedos wants to pop my cherry. anyways.....i don't know if you measured the new axle upon purchase. i'm thinking you gave them a core and maybe assumed they were proper length.

anyways, i'm about burnt and all in all i got about ten other possible solutions, but i doubt you or me wanna get together and do the nasty nate. so all i can say is measure as much **** as possible. make sure everything is aligned and all straight. again, just eyeballing can be totally mind decieving. believe me i know many times. play your cards right. work smarter not harder. if these possible solutions don't work, let me know. and send me some cash if you can donate some love.


***** ***** FREE ***** FREE FREE *****
just to get anyones attention, I want to sell a 1997 eclipse gs-t with 60,000 miles and a 6 bolt swap. clean title clean car. never boosted ready to modify. super nice make a nice offer

 

I've driven at least a 1000 miles since I did my transmission and several more since I did my tie rod end (which is what would cause the alignment to be off in my case) and although my alignment isn't perfect, I would have gone crazy if it was so far off as you say it needs to be. I drive 75+ miles per day, and the toe is SLIGHTY off to the right, I know that for a fact. I don't see any reason that my crossmember would be bent, I haven't hit anything, but I will measure just to make sure.




Modified by jgrotkier at 5:40 AM 3/17/2005

 

Dude... that is one of the funniest posts Ive read in a long time.

 

My buddies frame was wacked alittle and he kept losing axles too

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Muckman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Dude... that is one of the funniest posts Ive read in a long time. </TD></TR></TABLE>

One hell of a first post.

 

humm. Do you drive it very hard?

 

My frame is definately fine, this didn't start happening until we started messing with things and replaced the tranny, which obvioulsy required removing the axles.